Westerfeld
Posts: 32
7/19/2014
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Ahoy, fellow zee captains.
I managed to discover a few ports close to Fallen London, but I've yet to find a profitable trade route; Vanderblight buys those 3 colonists for 45 echos and also memories, recent news and visions but sells nothing I could take back to London.
Thus, I end up picking up some reports and going after pirate pinnaces (I don't attempt to board them, it feels too risky and I've gotten a couple of times linen and silk, which is much better considering I don't take chances with my crew).
Thanks in advance for your time
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penknife
Posts: 85
7/28/2014
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I'm just not sure why some people are so determined that the game has to have a significant trading component. The point of the game is to explore, complete various stories, and fight other ships and sea monsters. Yes, you have a ship and the ability to buy and sell things, and it is occasionally possible to make a small profit by buying and selling things in the right places, but getting hung up on the fact that's not generally profitable feels to me like arguing that a zombie apocalypse game isn't complete because you can't settle down and build a profitable retail store among the ruins of civilization, rather than getting busy with your shotgun. If you want to make money, do Blind Bruiser/Admiralty missions and storylets in the various ports until you've raised your stats enough to be able to hunt monsters and pirate ships effectively, and then get out there and start hunting.
edited by penknife on 7/28/2014
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Penknife
Most social actions welcome, no SMEN or Boxed Cats please.
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MatthewtheMagnificent
Posts: 62
7/28/2014
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I completely agree with penknife, trading should be the little extra you do, not the main activity.
Link it to storylets, like for example if the Admiral sends you up north to get strategic information don't just race up there to get it but fill your hold with wine and colonists drop them of at Venderbight for profit, plunder the pirates on the way, collect the reports, play riddles at Wither, hunt beasties, buy cheap fuel and goods at Palmerston and sell it back at London to cover your expenses.
Goal is to keep your ship afloat, your engine humming and your Zailors bellys full to keep exploring this wonderfull darkness, not to become a trademogul of the Underzee.
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Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374
7/27/2014
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It will never be possible to make a starting profit on routine trade alone, as the Wolfstack Docks notice warns. But it will generally be easier to make money as more content pops - see this FAQ point:
http://www.failbettergames.com/sunless-sea-faq#whysohard
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Atom Stratomsk
Posts: 44
7/28/2014
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Kryptaria wrote:
I just heard of the game yesterday, after discovering Fallen London a couple of days back. I bought Sunless Sea immediately. It's taken my interest from WildStar, but... my excitement is dying out.
I love the story, but I can't relax and enjoy it, since I'm constantly running low or out of echoes. The game mechanics are getting in the way.
When I first set out from Fallen London, I figured trade would be the easiest way to at least break even, covering costs of fuel and supplies, if not make a profit. A quick check of the wiki, though, showed me that almost nothing was profitable -- the percentage of profit was eaten by fuel cost. Tack on the cost of reducing terror, occasional hull repairs, and hiring replacements when a defeated pirate ship was lost at sea with two of my crew, and I've practically been running in the red.
London's staples should be worth more, the farther one moves from port. Distant ports should pay a premium for those staples, and should offer in return exotic luxuries that are worth more than the cost of fuel and supplies in London. Maybe a dynamic system of supply and demand could keep things a little bit randomized, but not too much, considering the enormous penalty for running out of fuel and supplies in the middle of nowhere.
The way it's set up now, with everything either trading at a loss or a minuscule profit, I feel like I have no choice but to grind. Granted, I haven't been gaming the Something awaits you in port mechanics, mostly because I'd rather explore than spend them all on a handful of potentially profitable random number generators.
After I'd played for a couple of hours, I recommended the game to my entire guild. Now, though, I'm having second thoughts. None of us really enjoy grinding, and that's what this is starting to feel like.
I understand that money is this game's timesink. That's fine. But a good timesink becomes invisible to the player, because enough other things have the player's attention -- the world, the encounters, the lore, whatever. If the timesink is at the forefront of the player's mind, it no longer becomes fun. It becomes a second job.
This game feels like a grind because it isn't complete. For one thing, this game will not really be about trading. Its the storylet rewards that will generally be your way to make money. I don't like it any more than you do but the developers want this to be a game more about the stories than the trading. It annoys me too but this early on in the games completion grinding is the only way to make alot of money since there aren't very many places to explore and therefore a limited amount of stories.
edited by Atom Stratomsk on 7/28/2014
edited by Atom Stratomsk on 7/28/2014
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bytyan
Posts: 15
7/29/2014
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I assume this is from an earlier version of the game, but ever since gold I've been turning a tidy profit on my trade route Shepards-corsaiers-priciples-palmerson-whither-venderblight, Leaving with wine and bandaged vagabonds and returning with devilbone dice and sistilac. It's important to remember 1.You only need enough fuel to get to mt.Palmerson, it's cheaper there then in London anyway. 2. Tomb colonists give 15 per cargo space, so it's worth hauling them all the way to one side of the map and back. 3. Your goods are only going to costs, the admiral and any story hooks you pick up are where your profit is going to come from. Learn which storylets are profitable or move the story along, and go with those. If all goes poorly and I find nothing profitable, I'm still up 70 echos or so. If all goes well, I can find myself with 600 or so.
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lord1box
Posts: 62
7/28/2014
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There's basically three trade routes that are viable right now. Map shuffling might seriously alter these, though.
1 Sell wine at Venderbight: easiest, safest
2 Sell wine at Godfall: Rake in the cash,but only for a certain time. Unless you apply a certain trick.
3 Travel around the world, gathering port reports, doing profitable stories
[spoiler]
1 is the easiest. You never need to leave the coast. You don't need to gain terror. You can farm pirate steamers and bats along the way, if you're so inclined. You advance the Genial Magician's story-line . You can find the cook. You can find an item that you can trade in for a captivating treasure. You can transport Tomb-colonists. You can do it while traveling around the world. And beside all that it costs very little fuel. There's just all kinds of amazing benefits to this route. It's the easiest and safest route.
The downside is that it's rather boring if you plan to make trips to and from Venderbight for a long time. Tomb-Colonists can eat your supplies, and you're not seeing a lot of the map. And you're not making that much on each crate of wine: only 2 echoes. The port report of Venderbight isn't worth much either.
2 gives the greatest amount of cash. You sell wine with a profit of 2 echoes in Venderbight, whereas in Godfall you can sell wine with a profit of 9 echoes! It takes very little fuel and supplies to get to Godfall as well, perhaps even less than going to Venderbight. The port report of Godfall is worth more than Venderbight as well. Add to that the fact that you can visit Mutton Island twice while doing the return trip to and from Godfall, so you have 2 chances for a judgement egg every time you make this trip. The problem is however is that it costs a lot of terror to travel to Godfall. Godfall also doesn't have as many readily available storylets as Venderbight. You can explore the Citadel, but that takes an investment in Foxfire Candles and should not be tried unless you're stats are around 50 at least. Unless you're prepared to lose a lot of crew and gain a whole heap of terror of course. The reward is worth it though.
3 is the one that let's you visit all the islands. It gets you all the port reports (that are worth it). There's roughly 2 ways you can travel around the world: Both consist of you traveling to your favorite ports, getting the reports, during which you can a) load up your hold with fuel/supplies and wine, which you dump at Venderbight or Godfall. Or you can b) load up your hold with fuel/supplies and go fightin' around the world. Trading is better early game. Fighting pays of way more late game. And you can combine both any way you like as long as you manage your fuel/supplies/trading goods/goodie space ratio well. The downside to traveling (and fightin') around the world is that it is sure to increase your terror. Dark patches of sea and bad story results can quickly rack up your terror to high levels. You'll also have to evade all the monsters until you're strong enough to beat them. Of course you'll have to explore and find islands to sail past first.
[/spoiler]
You'll be a rich bloke in no time.
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nameless
Posts: 237
7/28/2014
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Actually I liked this more than trade. It breaks the mold in an interesting way.
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The only god of the zee is nameless.
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WormApotheote
Posts: 725
7/29/2014
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Galdis wrote:
Trade encourages exploration. You have to find the good routes. Furthermore, I don't see why stories can't be woven into trade routes and relationships - either through legal trade relations or illicit smuggling.
edited by Galdis on 7/29/2014
That's literally in the game already though. (Cursorily, I mean the smuggling could use a lot more depth, and there's only a small number of options at this point, but also less than half the content is actually in the game at this point)
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No, I don't pull the Eater of Names.
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Frenzgyn
Posts: 197
7/19/2014
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Currently there is not much more outside there.
-You could sell wine for 23 echo (bought at 21 in London)at Venderbight or Gaiden Mourn
- You could give win in cluster of 5 at Godfall, but it's don via an event and it's time limited (but pretty much time..)
- You could sell prisoner's honey at gaiden mourc for 26 (bought at 25)
- You could buy demon's dice at Mt.Palmerton for 19 and sell them at London fro 20 echos (also, you could buy fuel at 9 there)
Also in Whiter you could exchange Zeestory and terror story for fuel and food.
edited by Frenzgyn on 7/19/2014
edited by Frenzgyn on 7/19/2014
edited by Frenzgyn on 7/19/2014
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http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Frenzgyn
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